Germany highlights battery fire hazards and resource impacts amid storage expansion

The waste‑management firm APM GmbH urges Germans to remove batteries and capacitors from electronic devices before discarding them, warning that forgotten cells can trigger fires in waste‑collection trucks, on recycling sites and in disposal facilities. In 2023, Germany recycled 747 000 t of electronic waste – about 82 % of the total collected – but safe handling requires users to extract batteries, avoid throwing them in regular trash and use designated collection points.

At the same time, plans for large‑scale battery storage to support the energy transition are proliferating. The Federal Network Agency recorded roughly 9 710 medium‑voltage connection requests for storage projects in 2024, amounting to an estimated 400 GW of power and 661 GWh of capacity, while only 921 installations (2.3 GW, 3.2 GWh) are operational. Each gigawatt‑hour of lithium‑iron‑phosphate storage would require up to 110 t of lithium, 400 t of phosphor, 400 t of copper and up to 1 000 t of graphite, implying the movement of tens of millions of tonnes of ore – a mining footprint far larger than the brief energy supply the storage can provide. Connection approvals do not guarantee construction, but the scale highlights significant environmental and resource concerns.